July 31 – 2001

Caspari Center Media Review…………….….July, 2001 # 2

During the period covered by this review, the number of articles found in the Israeli media’s coverage of matters relating to Messianic Jews, the mission and other Christian matters, came to a total of 58.

Of these:

  • 12 articles dealt with the decision of the State of Israel to interfere with the selection of the Greek Orthodox patriarch and the considerable distress caused by this interference.
  • Seven articles dealt with the Vatican’s refusal to re-open archives from the Second World War that have to do with Pope Pius XII.
  • Five articles dealt with Messianic Jews and the Mission
  • Three article dealt with Jewish/Christian relations
  • Three articles dealt with tourism and tourist sites in the land
  • Two articles dealt with the ongoing dispute between the Scottish Church in Tiberias and the religious Jews

The remaining 26 articles were on miscellaneous topics dealing with Christian, Arab, or Jewish matters on their own merit. (Editor’s note: Summer time tends to be slow and for that reason there are very few articles dealing directly with our subjects of interest. A number of those which do appear are articles that we have already covered and are reprinted from previously published materials.)

Converted Missionary Helps Yad L’achim Fight Mission (Shisha Yamim, July)

Yad L’achim celebrated a great success when activists from the organization foiled a pre-planned missionary activity at the Carmiel festival. According to reports received at Yad L’achim headquarters, missionaries were planning on “preying upon” the young people attending the music festival. In response to this information, Yad L’achim put together a group of activists and sent them to the festival grounds 24 hours ahead of the general opening time.

One of the activists in this group was a converted missionary. Years before, at another music festival in Arad, this young man encountered Yad L’achim activists. The activists confronted his missionary efforts, and a long conversation ensued. As a result of this conversation, the young man “re-converted” to Judaism and joined the ranks of Yad L’achim.

When the missionaries discovered that Yad L’achim activists had arrived on the scene before them, they were forced to cancel their original plan, and tried hard to blend in with the rest of the crowd. Thus their attempts to convert innocent Jews were ruined.

Jewish Children with Disabilities Studying in Convent! (Chadashot Mishpacha, 12/07/01)

The Mission is at work again, according to this religious weekly, but this time the government of Israel and the ministry of Education is supporting it. The paper explains that one “needs only to read the words (of support) and be appalled.”

The convent in Haifa through which such work is being carried out is home to a number of kindergartens along with the school for disabled children. 52 disabled children attend “classes” on a regular basis. Of these, 26 are Jewish.

After describing the types of disabilities these children suffer, the writer comments, “as though these Jewish children do not suffer enough because of the state in which they were born, their families have come and put them in a school that belongs to a convent!” The writer is quick to point out that the nun who runs the convent and the school is originally from Beirut, Lebanon.

The Ministry of Education had little to say in response to the paper’s accusations. “The facts,” says the writer, “speak for themselves… The missionaries are always looking for needy families, and it is through this (the need) that they enter the world of desperate Jews. The missionaries are making every effort to convert these disabled children, and through their warm affection and care, they enter the hearts of the parents and ‘share’ with them their Christian garbage.”

The head nun told the paper that some of the parents never come to visit their children, and do not even ask how they are doing. “They simply cannot deal with the fact that such a child was born to them.”

Yad L’achim responded: “everything must be done to save those children from the life that has been forced upon them in the convent.”

Holocaust Survivors in Messianic Video (Yated Ne’eman, 13/07/01)

This religious weekly reveals that “two prominent missionary organizations” in the States, Jews for Jesus and Chosen People Ministries, are preparing to “launch their annual summer campaign targeting… Jews.” The only difference is that this time the campaign will include a 58 minute video featuring Holocaust survivors who came to believe in Jesus (or became “Hebrew Christians”).

There have been a number of responses from other Holocaust survivors. One survivor was quoted as saying, “(it) is a horror. Having gone through all of that and then turning their backs? I just don’t quite understand how people could do this.”

Another survivor told Yated Ne’eman, “how a Holocaust survivor can be part of an organization like [Jews for J.] is incomprehensible… You can’t be a Jew and at the same time believe in J.”

When Jews for Jesus was accused of targeting large Jewish communities across the States with this campaign, Susan Perlman, associate director for Jews for Jesus responded that the ads were “straightforward” The seven people in the video [have] long ties to the organization and were not paid…and there [are] others (survivors) in the group.”

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Task Force is planning on doing all it can to counter this campaign. But while Jews for Jesus will be hiring people full-time to hand out pamphlets on the streets, the JCRC can only afford to hire people to work on the streets on a part-time basis.